The rise of fascism was on the agenda at SXSW London on Monday afternoon.
At a session titled, “The Authoritarian Creep: How Far Right Rhetoric Impacts Culture,” Deborah Frances-White, a British writer and podcaster best known for the podcast The Guilty Feminist, spoke with a group of expert panelists on Donald Trump, Israel prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the rising tide of the far right.
She was joined by Josie Fernandez-Marelli, CEO and co-founder of refugee NGO Choose Love; Agnès Callamard, general secretary at Amnesty International; and Misan Harriman, a photographer and activist who earned an Oscar nomination in 2024 for his directorial debut, a live-action short called The After.
“I do think we really have to take the seriousness of this moment to heart,” began Fernandez-Marelli. When asked on her opinion as to how things have gotten to this point — as the U.S. tips further into authoritarianism and the U.K. heads in a similar direction — she said: “Economic insecurity, collapse of trust in institutions, social media that rewards outrage over nuance, and I think democratic society is becoming complacent, you know? Growing up, I know I took for granted the rights that I have.”Added Callamard: “The first thing we need to realize is that the rise of authoritarianism is global. It is not something that is happening in a given region or in a given country; it is a global phenomenon, according to organizations that have monitored the health of so-called democracy for several decades.”
